New data reveals that nearly 500,000 cars in the UK are not paying taxes, raising concerns about road safety.
Data from the Department for Transport (DfT) shows that 498,000 registered vehicles have unpaid vehicle excise duty (VED), equating to one in every 83 vehicles.
Of the untaxed cars spotted in traffic, over a quarter (24%) have remained so for more than six months.
Nicholas Lyes, director of policy and standards at road safety charity IAM RoadSmart, expressed frustration, stating, “It will be hugely frustrating to the overwhelming majority of tax-paying drivers that almost half a million others are not paying their way. Perhaps even more worrying is that a quarter of those that are dodging vehicle excise duty have been doing so for more than six months. Untaxed vehicles are sometimes linked to much wider criminality and this has implications for safety on our roads.”
With 2.9% of all vehicles on roads, Northern Ireland has the highest percentage of VED evasion, while the rate across the UK as a whole is 1.3%.
Steve Gooding, director of motoring research charity the RAC Foundation, highlighted the broader concerns, saying, “Leaving aside the loss of cash for the Chancellor, the worry for us all must be what else VED evaders are failing to do. If they aren’t prepared to pay the duty, what are the chances they’re also uninsured and unroadworthy with no MOT? Some people may simply have forgotten to pay their VED for a week or two, or perhaps failed to update their records when they move house, but evasion on this scale could be a sign of more serious issues for road safety.”
Since the elimination of the paper tax disc in October 2014, the amount of money lost due to nonpayment of VED has increased. The DfT declared that it would not release a revised estimate of the amount of money lost due to doubts regarding the validity of the approach.
Notices are provided by the Driver and Vehicle Licencing Agency (DVLA), but the visual in-car reminder of the VED expiration date was eliminated with the removal of the paper disc. The Government claimed that the DVLA would eventually save almost £7 million annually as a result of the move.
A portion of the money lost due to VED evasion is recovered by the DVLA’s enforcement actions. DVLA chief executive Julie Lennard emphasized the importance of compliance, stating, “However, we will continue our work to keep evasion rates low by continuing to make vehicle tax easy to pay but hard to avoid.”
If a car registered in the UK is driven or parked on a public road, it must be taxed. The penalty for nonpayment is £80, with a maximum punishment of £1,000 if a case goes to court.
The DfT noted that its evasion figures are not comparable with previous years due to an improvement in identifying the movement of personalized number plates between vehicles.